A CHAIR OF ECONOMIC ORNITHOLOGY 135 



the patient elucidation of a very intricate problem, will 

 results be achieved which are not fraught with the risk 

 of serious injury to the very interests which it is intended 

 to subserve. 



Tayfield, Newport, Fife, 

 April 191 7. 



Mountain Hare at North Berwick. On the evening of 

 12th April, as I was returning to North Berwick and was passing 

 a ploughed field between the foot of the Law and the western 

 outskirts of the town, my attention was arrested by an almost white 

 Hare crouching among the dark clods at about 25 yards distance. 

 The ears were dusky and the back of a dull slate colour, but the 

 general effect produced as the animal hirpled leisurely away was 

 that of whiteness contrasting strangely with the rich red of the 

 surroundings. In contradistinction to several common Hares 

 observed that evening, this animal appeared ill at ease and 

 hesitating in its course, as if aware of its conspicuousness, and 

 I presume its presence on such low ground can be accounted for 

 by the recent heavy snowfalls on the distant Lammermoors. 

 P. J. C. McGregor, North Berwick. 



Note on an Unrecorded Occurrence of Remains of the 

 Elk in Perthshire. Through the courtesy of Colonel Smythe, of 

 Methven, I was lately enabled to examine an antler of the Elk 

 (Akes machlis) which has hung in the hall at Methven Castle for 

 more than a century. It was got in 1801 in a marl pit in the Old 

 Glebe Meadow, between Methven Castle and the village of 

 Methven, i\ feet below the surface. There are only other two 

 records of Elk remains in Perthshire so far as I am aware one at 

 Marlee, and the other at Airleywight. The specimen, which consists 

 of a single left antler, measuring 27 inches across by 23 inches 

 in length, has been identified by Dr James Ritchie. A cast of it is 

 being prepared for the Perthshire Natural History Museum, which 

 will then contain local examples of the following sub-fossil 

 mammalian remains Bos primigenius, Bos longifrons, Red Deer, 

 Elk, and Beaver. Henry Coates, The Museum, Perth. 



